Escape rooms have risen in popularity in the recent years, beginning in Asia and rapidly spreading to most of the world. You find them in China, Japan, Taiwan, Israel, Canada and the United States. But why have these escape rooms seem to have taken off at such a fevered pace, and why should you spend your time going to visit one? There are many reasons why people find these escape rooms so entertaining, so we’ve worked to put together a basic listing of 5 of the topmost reasons why you and yours should experience an escape room at the first opportunity.

1. Challenge Your Critical Thinking Skills

Escape rooms are so popular, they are even being created in elementary schools, Why? Well, the answer is simple: Escape room games challenge you to think creatively, to use logic in a new way. Its been found that when children are exposed to escape rooms, they learn valuable social skills, along with enhanced critical thinking skills. This applies to adults as well. When you enter an escape room, it’s mind against mind. It’s your mind pitted against that of the rooms creator. So, let the games begin!

There is an endless supply of themes for escape rooms, limited only by the creativity of those who create them. This means that you’ll find escape rooms which revolve around movies, TV shows, books, and plays. Escape rooms take these themes and put them in a real-world situation, where you and your teammates find that your deductive, intuitive, logic and cognitive senses are being put to the ultimate test.

For instance, that clue you deduced from the abstract painting on the wall, led you to the key of a small, hardwood gift box. While the gift box itself is simply a prop, the active thought processes and emotional reaction created while solving each puzzle is very real. If timers are utilized for each puzzle, then the atmosphere will tighten, as you and your mates feel your tension increase as the clock ticks down.

Escape rooms allow you to feel the weight of pressure, without any real consequences involved. When you and your team are in the escape room, you are isolated from the outside world for that one hour. There are no cell phones, no smoke signals and no calling for help to the outside world. It’s just you, your team and your critical thinking skills which will get you out.

2. Entertainment at its Finest!

The main reason people try out escape rooms is the fun they expect to have. Each escape room has its own theme, decor and is veiled in a mystery which must be solved. Some of these escape rooms require you to actually role play, to become a different character. Perhaps you are a ‘mole,’ a private investigator or a mad scientist. Here, you are taking on a role to find your way out. As such, escape rooms provide everyone with a one of a kind entertainment experience.

Instead of passively watching a film, reading a book or playing a video game, you can opt for a night out with friends or family. Escape rooms offer people a refreshingly new change of pace in entertainment, sprinkled with a bit of variety. Indeed, the experiences you and yours will enjoy in an escape room are fun, unique and cannot be obtained in any other form of entertainment available. Even in haunted houses, you are not truly a participant, but rather a spectator being acted upon by the environment. The escape room, however, turns you into an active participant.

You know what they say, that happiness is healthy. Remember that laughing and having fun has been proven to improve your health. Fun and laughter have been shown to reduce stress, boost your energy levels, improve your memory as well as enhancing our relationship with others. Let’s not forget that dopamine is released which gives you a small, ‘high’ whenever you solve a puzzle.

3. Experience a New Form of Role Playing Game

RPG gamers have been doing this for many years, solving puzzles to move from one level of play to the next, and this same logic has been applied to real-world escape rooms. RPGs or Role Playing Games are a type of video game where the player is challenged in different settings with a variety of characters to move forward. A huge part of many RPG’s is puzzle solving.

What is fabulous about the escape room, is that you can be challenged in a team setting, but do it in the real world. While the virtual world of gaming and sites like Second Life are fun and entertaining, to take this concept and apply it to a real-world setting is refreshing, fun and exciting. As many of these escape rooms are indeed developed by gamers, the bar is set especially high. These designers take all that they’ve learned from video game RPG’s and interspersed it into the escape room. The more inventive and skilled the gamer, the more inventive and varied the escape room.

4. Enhanced Social Skills: Teamwork

The 4 C’s include Communication, creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking, all of which you’ll find at a well-run escape room. To achieve the goal of escaping the room, each member of the team must contribute. Since many of the puzzles are timed, there is no room for bickering, only solid, creative brainstorming. In fact, escape rooms are specifically designed where you cannot solve it on your own.

As a group of adults, you are allowed the freedom of experimenting openly with your imagination, something not readily available to grown-ups in our world. Once you mature, your imagination is relegated to the creativity others create for you, such as in books, film, games, and television. However, with escape room games you are free to indulge, free to immerse yourself in your imagination, free to solve, free to play a role in a world you always wanted to participate in.

Now that we’ve brought up team building, we can also bring up its different applications and how they relate to escaping rooms. While escape rooms are a great way to have fun with family and friends, they are also a great way to encourage team building at work. That’s right, as an employer, you can schedule your department to have a go at an escape room, and watch as your employees work together to achieve a common goal. This is a fun way to motivate your team and reap the benefits of increased productivity.

If they work well for families, friends, and co-workers, then the same should apply to sports teams. Whether your team is at the elementary school, high school, college level or pro, having them take some time out in an escape room can only increase their camaraderie. After all, these rooms are designed to flood your system with a variety of emotional reactions and tension, so it’s good practice for any team to learn to handle these emotional responses in an exciting and fun environment.

#5. Become the Warrior, Why Not?

After you’ve read all of the fantastic benefits which can be obtained from visiting an escape room game or two, there can’t possibly be a reason not to. This is your chance to become the warrior. You are challenged, you decipher, you win, you achieve. Just like any other form of gaming, you can always level up to new experiences.

For instance, some escape rooms are simple, and housed in a trailer, or utilizing one room. Others are much more expansive, and include multiple rooms, tunnels and utilize high tech gadgets and locks. Once you’ve completed a few of the one room experiences, you can test your mettle against the minds who created the larger escape rooms.

Keep it’s your mind against that of the individual who created the escape room. If you and your team can level up and master the toughest escape rooms out there, you truly are a ‘warrior’ of sorts. So, what are you waiting for? Grab a date, some family or friends and head down to the nearest escape room, and begin your new adventure!

Why Not Try one of the best Las Vegas Escape Room Games – Number One Escape Room? They’re just a few minutes away from the strip and have multiple different escape rooms with excellent themes and ideas. Find them here:

If you have been injured in a car accident in Nevada, it probably seems obvious to you that you deserve compensation for your pain and suffering. However, the insurance companies don’t always see things that way, making the process of filing a claim often time-consuming and challenging. Nevada insurance companies strive to settle their cases as quickly as possible, and without paying out any more than they have to, despite the fact that the suffering of a car accident victim may be undeniable.

If you have been injured in a car accident in Nevada and are bringing a personal injury law case to the courts, you have a better chance of winning your case if you provide the following:

Police Report

The insurance companies will closely examine the police report in any car accident law case, which is the report that is used to record any factors that might have contributed to the accident, including traffic citations. You should present this piece of important evidence when you file your personal injury claim if it indicates that the other party is at fault by violating the traffic laws of the state.

Photographs

If you were involved in a car accident and are filing a claim against another party, having as much photographic documentation of what happened can really help your case. You don’t need to have a camera; simply use your phone to take photos, and these are considered to be adequate.

Physician Imposed Restrictions After An Accident

Proving your injuries can be a lot easier if you see a doctor immediately after a car accident, and of course, you should do so anyway in case of any serious injuries or adverse effects. In personal injury law, a victim must be injured sufficiently so that they can’t lead their lives normally as they were doing before the accident, a concept known as impairment of bodily function. These restrictions have to be imposed and verified by a doctor, even if you know or suspect that you are injured enough not to be able to lead a healthy life, and that includes being able to socialize and participate in hobbies, as well as not being able to work.

Testimony

Make sure you get the names and contact information for any witnesses at the scene of your car accident, as their testimony can be just as important as yours when it comes to increasing your chances of winning your personal injury case.

Medical Bills and Records

Being able to supply copies of your medical records and bills resulting from any injuries can also be a big help, and these should be given to your insurance adjuster.

It’s highly recommended that you hire an excellent Nevada personal injury lawyer if you have been seriously injured in a car accident, and this will increase your chances of getting as much financial compensation as possible. Your lawyer can help you to get together the essential pieces of evidence, including those mentioned above and can help you through the entire car accident law process. You should keep in mind that if you have been injured, you need to get as much financial compensation as possible, despite the fact that the insurance company will probably try to settle for as little as possible. Our experienced Las Vegas lawyers can help you with all aspects of personal injury law, and your chances of winning your case are much better with our help.

Thank you to the attorneys at Rodney Okano for this outstanding post on car accident law in Nevada. Check out their Las Vegas legal practice below:

Window tinting in cars is often seen as glamorous and artistic, and it isn’t hard to see why this alteration to your car has become increasingly popular all over the world. However, apart from the fact that it just looks good, car window tinting has several other benefits too.

Ultraviolet light can be harmful, and exposing yourself to excessive heat can be uncomfortable, and auto window tinting can help to protect against both scenarios. However, if you are thinking of having some window tinting carried out on your car, it’s recommended that you make sure you aren’t breaking any traffic laws where you live by doing that.

Tinted windows in your car provide the following four main benefits:

1) Reduce Your Exposure to Harmful UV Rays

Damage to the skin, skin cancer, problems with the immune system and premature aging are all potential results of overexposure to UV rays, and car window tinting can help to reduce those risks. In fact, up to 99 percent of UV rays can be deflected if you drive in a car with tinted windows, and if you live somewhere were the sun is constantly shining, that can only be good news.

2) More Privacy

It can be very difficult for anyone outside your car to see what is going on inside the car, or who is inside it and this extra privacy is understandably one of the main reasons why auto window tinting is so popular. Most car thieves are less inclined to commit theft if they can’t see what – or who – is inside the car.

An Interior That’s Comfortable and Cool

About 30 percent of solar heat is filtered out if you have regular glass windows on your car, as opposed to over 80 percent with tinted windows. This ability to make the interior of your car cool and comfortable, even during warmer weather, is another major benefit of having your car windows tinted. And of course, you don’t need to run your car’s air conditioning as much if the interior is comfortable and cool, and this, in turn, can save you money on fuel costs.

Your leather seats can potentially crack and fade if they are exposed to the sun constantly, and a cooler car interior also means your interior is less likely to fade.

Safety

Because laminate is used as a film on the tinting on your car, the glass in your windows is held together and won’t shatter in the event of an accident. The fact that car window tinting can actually make your car safer is another benefit for many drivers. Your windows won’t shatter, which means that glass won’t fly everywhere, even if deliberately smashed, or in case of an accident.

At one time, car window tinting used to be seen as a luxury for those who could afford it or wanted to make a statement. Today, the many benefits of auto window tinting have made it more popular than ever, despite the initial outlay and you may decide it’s the right choice for you.

I’ve had an open back-order with Adorama and BHPhotoVideo for over a year for the Nikon 18-200 f3.5 VR lens.

Last night, as I’m bopping through Best Buy looking for other stuff, I made a swing by the premium camera equipment case. And there it was.

I double checked to be sure that this wasn’t some Tamron knockoff, but sure enough, genuine Nikkor.

I talked to the guy at BB about getting it, and mentioned how ultra-rare that these are to find today. He told me that the one that their display item had been on order since last year, but apparently he wasn’t aware of the shortage going to the consumer end of the equation. (Canon shooter. Ah, it all makes sense now.)

Anyway. Pictures soon.

I’m excited. If the reviews are accurate, this may be the great all-purpose walk-around lens I’ve been waiting for…